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“The extreme popularity of marijuana is attributed to its minimal toxicity, pleasant effects, and extremely wide range of therapeutic uses, with over 300 of them reported,” says NORML, one of the grassroots legalization organizations. With such great benefits, the weed business is definitely here to stay.

Marijuana is natural, helpful and can even be produced in one’s own backyard. Is it any wonder then that flocks of people are turning to medical marijuana for relief instead of pharmaceuticals that have proven to cause more harm than good? With more and more people realizing its therapeutic benefits and not enough knowing how to harvest its great potential, an extremely lucrative industry has spawned.

People Running to become Medical Marijuana Patients

Chronic pain is the number one medical reason accounting for the majority of all cannabis patient recommendations. Studies from numerous sources have shown that marijuana is especially effective for neuropathic pain, a condition that afflicts 7 to 8 percent of the population.

Patients who use cannabis to mitigate pain commonly report a significant reduction in their usage of other medications, especially prescription opiates which many complain cause negative side effects.

There is now close to 1 million medical marijuana patients in California alone, which is 3 percent of the entire state’s population, estimates NORML.

This is an exponential increase from earlier years, 75,000 in 2004, 150,000 in 2005, and 275,000 in 2007. Because California’s law is older and has more liberal criteria, patient figures there are likely to be much higher than reported figures, states NORML. Patients have been doubling almost every year, and this is in line with patient figures in other comparable states that offer wide access to medical cannabis clinics and dispensaries.

Patients Demand Safe Access

Patients demand safe and legal access to cannabis. With patient demand growing far quicker than the amount of dispensaries that can keep up with it, patients fear they may have to go the black market to get the medication they need. Dispensaries provide a much needed service in protecting patients and their rights to safe and legal access.

Dispensaries also provide numerous different types of marijuana, all used to treat various ailments. A patient can go inside a dispensary and choose up to a hundred different types. There are also edibles, tinctures, sprays, and several more methods of ingesting marijuana and knowledgeable people there to educate them. There is no way a new patient could do this on his own.

A dispensary provides medication 24/7 and the patient does not have to worry about using alternative means of procuring what they need in an unsafe manner. Most dispensaries have the latest technology, cameras, security measures and even security guards. Patients can feel safe in having a choice of readily and widely available medication by visiting a dispensary.

An Example From Colorado

Ron Hyman, the state’s registrar of vital statistics, knows that the influx of medical marijuana applications his office receives daily has to cease eventually. Last month his office received over 100,000 applications to start a dispensary, over 99 percent of which were denied because they were filled out incorrectly. “We are aware of people moving to Colorado because of this,” he says.

Ever optimistic, Hyman looks forward to the day when his office’s storage closets will finally be free of dispensary applications for the weed business. “That will be a day to celebrate,” he says. And he’s sure it’s coming. After all, he repeats, “There’s only five million people in the state,” and sooner or later people will figure out how to fill them out correctly.

Learn more from the free guide at www.start-a-dispensary.com